Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
I’d spent every night since I’d last seen her thinking about what I would have done if my alarm hadn’t gone off, warning me to get my ass to the airport so I could catch my flight to Rome. I’d planned different scenarios, a variety of ways I wanted to have her. Now that she was here, I was going to execute each and every one of them.
I grazed her neck with my teeth, and followed with my tongue at the same moment I traced my fingertips over her shoulder, down the line of her exposed collarbone toward the center of her chest. But a warning sounded in my mind, making me halt.
Olivia was trembling.
Not a shudder, but trembling as if she were filled with fear. I withdrew, concerned, and the terrified look on her face made my alarm flare. “What is it?”
“Something’s wrong with me.”
Without hesitation, I pulled her away from the wall, cold sweeping through my body like it had been poured on me. What was happening to her? She was pale and shaking hard, her eyes wide. Had someone used her to get to me? I knew just how easy it was to poison a target.
Focus. Get her help.
“Can you walk?” I could carry her if she wasn’t able, down the stairs and back to the party where someone was sure to have a medical background. I bent swiftly, scooping her up in my arms.
“Wait! Wait!” She sounded guilty. “Put me down. I’m fine.” She stared up at me, her face flushed with something that looked like embarrassment. “I didn’t mean something was physically wrong with me.”
“What?” Stepping back from the edge of . . . panic? No, not panic. But whatever it had been, it made me uneasy. “You’re sure?”
She nodded and shifted in my arms, looking desperate to scurry away. So I complied, setting her back on her feet, but I held her trapped there in my embrace. I wouldn’t release her until I understood what the hell had just happened.
She took a page right out of my book and peered up at me, offering no explanation. The only thing she did was struggle to breathe and compose herself.
“Let’s back up,” I said, finally. “What did you mean that something’s wrong with you?”
Her green eyes blinked rapidly. “Not wrong. I should have said . . . different.” She sighed, and the tension fell from her body like she’d figured out how to shed it off. Her gaze hardened, and she once again became the woman I was more familiar with. “You’ve done something to me.”
“What, exactly, have I done?”
“I don’t know. You’ve given me these . . . feelings.” She said it like I’d given her a disease.
“Feelings,” I repeated. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. A short laugh escaped my lips, but then I sobered. I let my voice go heavy with accusation. “Yeah? Well, right back at you, Olivia.”
Acknowledging there was more between us than just sex should have set off alarms. Emotions made me uncomfortable, and they were something I’d prefer not to discuss, ever. In my line of work, I didn’t have time for them, anyway. Emotion could get me killed.
I kept waiting for the cold sweat to come, but it didn’t.
For once, I didn’t mind the idea of talking about emotions—provided they were hers. Her halfhearted attempt to break free from my embrace stopped when my head dipped and I set my lips on her shoulder. I watched as goosebumps lifted on her arms, and I enjoyed having that effect on her.
“Tell me about these feelings,” I said.
“We didn’t come up here for me to talk,” she reminded.
It was true, but she’d worked information out of me rather successfully, and I was looking forward to doing the same. “Tell me.”
She stayed motionless, allowing my lips to continue to wander, like she was making a stand. “You’re welcome to try to make me.”
The smug, overly confident look on her face made my heart thud faster and stirred things below my belt. This was a game she’d lose, and we were both going to enjoy it.
I moved aggressively, surpassing her attempts to dominate, and slammed her back against the wall. This time the picture bounced on its hook and hung crooked. Her sexy mouth fell open in shock, and her eyes hooded when I caressed a hand down over the full curve of her breast, her ribs, down her waist, and behind to squeeze her hard against me. She moaned against my mouth.
I used the most seductive voice I possessed. “Tell me.”
“Tell you what?” Her feigned ignorance was intentional, spurring me to press forward.
“Tell me what I’ve done to you.” Jesus, how I’d wanted this tight body back beneath my hands. “Tell me how you feel about me.”
I didn’t give her a whole lot of time to do it, though, kissing her hard. She clawed at my tie, either tugging the knot loose or tugging me closer, I wasn’t quite sure.